1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vacuum cleaner, and mode particularly to an apparatus for fixing a trash bag to a vacuum cleaner.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A vacuum cleaner is an apparatus for sucking external dust or materials by a powerful sucking force generated by a driving force of a motor which is mounted therein. The sucked dusts or sweepings are captured by a trash bag set in a dust collecting chamber, and clean air is exhausted out through a driving chamber.
Generally, a vacuum cleaner is classified as a canister type vacuum cleaner and an upright type vacuum cleaner. The canister type vacuum cleaner has a main body built on wheels and a hose assembly to suck dust or materials into the main body. The main body includes a sucking force generating section such as a sucking fan, a motor for driving the sucking force generating section and a dust collecting chamber for filtering out the dust or the materials from the sucked air.
The upright type vacuum cleaner has a constitution similar to the canister type vacuum cleaner. But, in the upright type vacuum cleaner, the hose assembly is unnecessary because a target surface to be cleaned is positioned under a main body of the vacuum cleaner. Recently, the canister type vacuum cleaner has been more widely used than the upright type vacuum cleaner.
In FIG. 1, a conventional canister type vacuum cleaner 100 is illustrated. As shown in the FIG. 1, the vacuum cleaner 100 includes a main body 110 being movable by wheels 120 mounted thereunder at both sides; a dust collecting chamber 130, provided within the main body 110, for scavenging the sucked dusts or garbages; a trash bag 140 detachably set in the dust collecting chamber 130; a flexible hose 150 connected to an inlet of the dust collecting chamber 130; and a brush head assembly 160, coupled to one end of the flexible hose 150 and making contact with a floor, for sucking dust and garbage.
Generally, in case of cleaning work with the vacuum cleaner 100, dust and external stuff sucked by the brush assembly 160 are captured in the trash bag 140 provided in the dust collecting chamber 130 through the flexible hose 150, while a clean air is exhausted out through the trash bag 140.
Since the dust collecting chamber 130 is frequently opened and closed for the exchanging of the trash bag 140, a hood 170 that is capable of selectively being opened and closed is installed on top of the dust collecting chamber 130. The trash bag 140 has a collecting part 142 for capturing dust and garbage, and a cardboard 144, which is provided at a part of the collecting part 142, and has an inlet 146. In addition, between the collecting part 142 and the cardboard 144 is provided a flexible sealing member 149 (shown in FIG. 2) for preventing an air leakage at the time of coupling the trash bag 140 with the flexible hose 150. The trash bag 140 is coupled to a fixing member 180 which is formed in the dust collecting chamber 130, and the trash bag 140 may be attached to or detached from the fixing member 180 by the cardboard 144.
FIG. 2 shows a state where the trash bag 140 is installed in the dust collecting chamber 130. As shown FIG. 2, the fixing member 180 has a neck which is protruded upward from a floor of the dust collecting chamber 130, for fixing a lower part of the cardboard 144 of the trash bag 140; a fixing lever 184, formed on an inner upper portion of the dust collecting chamber 130, for fixing an upper portion of the cardboard 144; and a spring 186 for elastically supporting the fixing lever 184. A central portion of the fixing lever 184 is hingedly coupled to the wall of the dust collecting chamber 130 by a hinge pin 188. Accordingly, the lower portion of the fixing lever 184 always presses the cardboard 144 of the trash bag 140 by the spring 186.
If the trash bag 140 is inserted into the dust collecting chamber 130, the fixing lever 184 is rotated upward, and a space is provided where the cardboard 144 of the trash bag 140 is inserted into the locking projection 182. After the cardboard 144 is inserted through the space, the fixing lever 184 is rotated downward by the elastic force of the spring 186 and presses the upper portion of the cardboard 144 of the trash bag 140, and thereby fixing of the trash bag 140 is completed. Through the above procedure, the trash bag 140 is fixed in the dust collecting chamber 130.
In a case of withdrawing the trash bag 140, the trash bag 140 can be withdrawn from the dust collecting chamber 130 by reversely performing the above procedure. That is, the fixing lever 184 is rotated upward to provide a space through which the cardboard 144 of the trash bag 140 can be withdrawn from the neck 182. The cardboard 144 is withdrawn through the room, and the fixing lever 184 is rotated downward by the elastic force of the spring 186 to recover its original position. Through the above procedure, the trash bag 140 is withdrawn from the dust collecting chamber 130.
However, this type of fixing member may not avert a free movement of the cardboard of the trash bag due to a vibration generated from a driven vacuum cleaner. As a result, the cardboard may not be tightly coupled with the flexible hose and thereby, a suction operation becomes unstable. Besides, in a procedure of coupling the fixing member with the inner wall of the dust collecting chamber, the spring should be correctly positioned for assembling a hinge, and this makes an assembling work complex.
On the other hand, an embodiment that is similar to an apparatus for fixing a trash bag to the vacuum cleaner is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,385 (issued to John Jailor at Aug. 13, 1996, entitled "Filtering Bag Mounting Assembly For A Vacuum Cleaner").
According to John Jailor's teaching, a fixing plate coupled with a wall of a dust collecting chamber by a hinge is disclosed, wherein a fixing groove is formed at one end of the fixing plate. A cardboard of a trash bag is inserted into the fixing groove and thereby, the fixing plate is integrally coupled with the cardboard. Thereafter, the trash bag is connected to an inlet of a vacuum cleaner by rotating the fixing plate about a hinge.
However, using this type of fixing device has a problem that the cardboard may freely move left and right during operation of the vacuum cleaner because the cardboard is not inserted completely into the fixing plate.